When I was teaching a group of students in Ladakh, I remember telling them about my friend, the photographer Sarika Dandona. I said that were she in that beautiful place, she would likely be lying flat on the frozen lake, completely absorbed in photographing intricate details within the ice. I, meanwhile, would be holding her by a rope to keep her from venturing too far!
I often joke about her dedication, but her art is no laughing matter. Dandona focuses exclusively on macrophotography, a field in which the subject is zoomed in on with great depth. She documents everyday surfaces: Glass, ice, water, stone, metal. And she focuses on how light transforms familiar materials into abstract landscapes that feel architectural and otherworldly.
Dandona graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, specialising in medical biotechnology and microbiology. Her love of microscopic beauty in nature and life arose there. She also worked in journalism and healthcare entrepreneurship, which continue to shape and influence her art. Abstract photography began on a lark, on a trip to Appu Ghar in Delhi.
Consider Cathedral of Shadows (2020), featuring a dome-like structure with protruding spires. The image is made on canvas, in black-and-white, and projects a sense of grandeur, as if one is admiring its vastness from below. It suggests an ancient observatory defined by concentric forms, striking symmetry and the illusion of depth. In reality, the thing she is photographing could be anything from a vessel to a glass.
{{/usCountry}}Consider Cathedral of Shadows (2020), featuring a dome-like structure with protruding spires. The image is made on canvas, in black-and-white, and projects a sense of grandeur, as if one is admiring its vastness from below. It suggests an ancient observatory defined by concentric forms, striking symmetry and the illusion of depth. In reality, the thing she is photographing could be anything from a vessel to a glass.
{{/usCountry}}Epicentre of a Rupture (2019) is composed of twelve panels on cured high-fibre reinforced concrete, which when seen from a distance, converge to a cohesive whole. One sees the centuries-old ringed layers of a tree. On closer inspection, one also sees the fissures and cracks made by the natural texture of the concrete. By playing with her subject and medium, Dandona showcases order and disorder.
Oceanic Veins (2018) on Corning Gorilla Glass is dominated by deep blues and cyan tones. It’s fluid, and it looks almost like an underwater universe. Dark, vein-like formations create a visual rhythm that suggest both static structures and flowing currents. The glass enhances the image’s depth, making the most of the material’s transparency and reflective qualities to amplify this visual ambiguity.
Dandona’s intentional use of different mediums to display her work reminds us that extraordinary visual worlds exist in the small details of the objects around us. It challenges us to interpret and discover rather than merely recognise what stood before the camera. I deeply appreciate the ambiguity it fosters. It transforms the photograph into an active conversation between the artist, the image, and the viewer.
Artist bio: Photographer, author and journalist Sankar Sridhar documents the cost of transformation upon remote communities in the subcontinent.
From HT Brunch, November 14, 2026
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